Comedy & Commentary Podcast – posted Wednesdays

Year: 2016

This week Pyra talks about the time she saw a real live white supremacist minding his own damn business on the Skytrain; demotes herself to bassist, ponders live logistics for live maQLu shows, and rambles on about synths, live acoustics, and the overtone series; critiques Izzy Stradlin’s terrible taste in “comedy” and comments on the Guns N Roses reunion tour; and gets in touch with Mother Nature by planting seeds she will soon start neglecting.

This week, Pyra complains about her even-more-screwed-up-than-usual sleep schedule, blathers on about DIY bellydance costuming and trying to use up her fabric stash, gets a one-week reprieve on tattooing, and the Wikipedia robots have finally decided/noticed Pyra existed as maQLu in 2010.

Yet another reboot: After getting lazy and skipping the show last week, this double-wide episode has a dose of the old version of the show as Pyra raves about the wonders of an obnoxious old cartoon called Kevin Spencer, swaps tickets with a scalper and learns what it’s like to be a Brenda, and despite prior proclamations, finds herself writing new maQLu songs.

Also: Unknown Hinson needs to get a Visa machine for his merch table, and back to belly dance means time to buy new costuming stuff, plus Pyra rambles a bit about DIY halter top costume plans.

This week, Pyra gets her shoulder hurt, sorta; plans to reformat one of her other podcasts; and discovers she might be accidentally micro-cheating on pranayama but it doesn’t matter since she changed pranayama techniques.

She also reads a blog about her continual mental chatter whilst going to a clear mind meditation class (take a wild guess at the imaginary guest star), talks about a mishmash of her readings and video watchings on Tao and meditation and amusingly honest lamas, and shares some disjointed thoughts on which kinds of desire lead to suffering and self-righteous converts.

Pyra makes a decision about the future of the show: she’ll change the direction and format of this show to be more of a reflection of her changing priorities and direction in life. This week’s in-between episode is a wrapping up of the old version of the show and a preview of the new, in which Pyra talks about stand up comedy and her other projects and her new old obsessions.

She then talks about mini-retreats, new priorities and practises, and gives side notes on why you probably don’t want to search for “Tibetan sky burial” on YouTube (with a side note on the side note about the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party, gawking tourists, and pissed off monks), when karma’s kinda funny, and weird anxiety about rising tides.

Also, Pyra decides she should maybe learn Japanese in case she decides to do the Shikoku pilgrimage years from now, has an online business idea that she won’t discuss because Google, and talks about reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s “No Mud, No Lotus” and Brian Weiss’ “Many Lives, Many Masters.”

This week: Pyra slowly starts working on her New Year’s resolution to cook at home more but opts for McDonald’s rather than risk “catching the hipsterism” on Main Street; helps her brother with WordPress; mentions her growing mini-obsession with the Shikoku pilgrimage in Japan; spends 9 hours rejigging her blog; does absolutely nothing on the new maQLu album; and goes internet rabbit hole digging with a bunch of random web surfing about the Freemasons.

On this week’s longer than expected episode: Pyra’s been lazy, but prefers to call it being in hibernation mode. Pyra also contemplates the future of the show and admits needing focus, falls off her hooker heels, gives a couple of the only 4 recipes she knows how to make, rants about the two stupidest songs Izzy Stradlin ever wrote, and describes the ideal way of life.

Plus: Pyra gushes about the album of the week, Anxious Disease by The Outpatience, and didn’t get much done on the new maQLu album but still manages to talk about it for six minutes anyway.